DEAR SIR,
Mr.
Thompson has been to see me. Of course I was obliged to tell him there might be
circumstances in which I would vote for a slaveholder. This, I suppose, has
lost me a hundred votes; but I had better lose a hundred by honesty than gain
one by dishonesty. . . . In great haste, very truly yours,
H. MANN.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7,
1850.
Mr. A. has
infinitely slender cause to praise Mr. Cobb for putting Mr. Giddings on the
Committee on Territories, and Mr. Allen on the District Committee, and Mr. King
on the Judiciary; for he has so buried them up with Southern Democrats, that
they cannot get their heads high up enough to breathe. With such a committee as
Mr. Winthrop would have appointed, we should have met with no obstacles in
getting our measures before the country and the House. Now we shall encounter
the most serious of obstacles at every step; and, if it is possible for skill
or power to bar out all antislavery measures, it will be done.
There is no end to
the perversions of partisans. A partisan cannot be an honest man, whether he be
a political or a religious partisan. How necessary it is to cultivate the seeds
of truth in the young! Nothing can be, or can approach to be, a substitute for
it. So of the great principle, that it is for the interest of every man to be a
true man, and that by no possibility can perversion or error be useful. How the
world needs to be educated!
Does H. get exact
and complete ideas of things? Can he reproduce what you teach him? This is an
all-important part of teaching. Has a lesson been so learned that the pupil can
restate it in words, or exemplify it in act, or draw it on blackboards, &c.?
This is the test to which learners should be early subjected. I am very glad
about the music. We pity Laura Bridgeman for the privation of her physical
powers; but how many of us need to be pitied for the privation of faculties
whose absence deforms just as much as a loss of the senses! One of these is
music.
DEAR SIR,—If you do
not pity a poor fellow who is condemned to stay here and vote day after day,
doing no good, and perhaps some harm, then you are more hard-hearted than a
slaveholder. . . . I hear the Free-soil men are very ferocious against me
because I voted for Mr. Winthrop. Some discussion was had about getting up an
indignation meeting to give me a special denunciation. But probably they will
think they can do the same thing without exposing themselves to an answer. . .
.
I am told that Mr ———
and others have got this notion in their heads, and speak of it freely,— that I
am to be put forward next year as a candidate for Governor, in order to break
down their party. They want, therefore, to break me down first. It is not what
is past, but what they profess to apprehend for the future, that directs their
course. They mean to put me in the wrong, at all events. Hence that article in
the "Republican," a week or ten days ago, written, as I am told, by ———.
I should like a good opportunity to set this matter right. . . .
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p.
285-6
We have been going
the same rounds, in attempting to choose a Clerk, which occupied us three weeks
before we chose a Speaker. It is most irksome business, and cuts away all the
ties that bind me to office.
We have just this
minute elected a Clerk from Tennessee. He is a Southerner, but as
unobjectionable as any Southerner can be. He does not hold slaves; but he was
once a member of Congress, and voted with the slave-party through and through.
I have not voted for him at all, though he is a Whig. We had an exciting time
at the close of the voting, and before the vote was declared. The Southern
Democrats, seeing how near he was to being elected, came over to him one after
another, and at last gave him just enough. That is the way. They are always
more true to slavery than to Democracy. It is a good result; but I am rejoiced
that I did not help to bring it about. During the whole voting, the Northern
Whigs came round me, and some of our Massachusetts men too, and urged and
besought me to change my vote. At one moment, when only one more vote was
wanted, forty men turned bescechingly to my seat. I shook my head at them all;
and at that moment a Southern man on the other side of the House jumped up, and
changed his vote. This settled it.
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p.
286-7
JAN. 28, 1850.
This morning I was
introduced to a gentleman from North Carolina, who wanted to have a talk with
me about slavery. He is embedded in all the doctrines in its favor. He has been
offering all commercial, economical, and pecuniary arguments to me in reference
to slavery in the Territories. As to the moral and religious aspect of the
question, he is as firm for slavery as William Lloyd Garrison is against it. He
says he is willing to take up with any portion of the new territory which the
South can accept, as a decent pretext for surrendering the rest. I told him I
would give the South any money as an equivalent, any amount of the public lands
which they may turn into money; but one inch of territory for slavery never!
let what would come.
Dark clouds overhang
the future: and that is not all; they are full of lightning.
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p.
287-8
FEB. 4, 1850.
Gen. Taylor's
Message is very good so far as it relates to California. He recommends that it
be admitted as a State. But, in the same message, he recommends non-action in
regard to New Mexico; that is, to form no territorial government for New
Mexico, but to await its own motion on the subject. Now, the benefit of a
territorial government in New Mexico, with a prohibitior of slavery in it, is,
that, while such a prohibition exists, no slaveholders will dare go there, and
therefore will not be there to infuse their views into the people, and help
form a constitution with slavery in it. If there is no such government, and no
such prohibition, the fear is that slaveholders will go there, and exercise an
influence in favor of slavery, and help form a constitution which shall not
prohibit it, and, when they send that constitution to Congress, will get in,
and so slavery be ultimately established by reason of present neglect. I
approve, therefore, of the California part of the message, but disapprove of
the other.
1 Anson Burlingame.
1 Howell Cobb of Georgia and Winthrop being
the Democratic and Whig candidates. Ante, p. 148.
2 Looking to a suspension of diplomatic
relations with Austria, on account of her treatment of Hungary.
3 Mr. Chase spoke against Clay's Compromise,
March 26 and 27, 1850, making the most thorough and spirited speech on that
side.
SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 212
Whittier
is here on a short visit. I go to-night with Miss Bremer to hear Wendell
Phillips, and to-morrow evening dine out, or I should insist upon taking him
[Whittier] to you. He is staying at the Quincy Hotel, in Brattle Street.
I regret the
sentiments of John Van Buren about mobs, but rejoice that he is right on slavery.
I do not know that I should differ very much from him in saying that we have
more to fear from the corruption of wealth than from mobs. Edmund Dwight once
gave, within my knowledge, two thousand dollars to influence a single election.
Other men whom we know very well are reputed to have given much larger sums. It
is in this way, in part, that the natural antislavery sentiment of
Massachusetts has been kept down; it is money, money, money, that keeps Palfrey
from being elected. Knowing these things, it was natural that John Van Buren
should say that we had more to fear from wealth than from mobs. He is a
politician,—not a philanthropist or moralist, but a politician, like Clay,
Winthrop, Abbott Lawrence; and he has this advantage, that he has dedicated his
rare powers to the cause of human freedom. In this I would welcome any person
from any quarter.
You will read the
proceedings at Washington. The bluster of the South is, I think, subsiding,
though as usual the North is frightened, and promises to give way. I hope to
God they will stand firm. There is a small body at Washington who will not
yield, the Free Soilers. Hale sustains hinself with great address and ability,
but Chase is a person of a higher order of capacity. As to Webster, Emerson
calls him a dead elephant !
2 New York "Evening Post," Feb. 20,
1850
1 Speech in the House, Feb. 21, 1850.
You have doubtless
read Webster's speech. To me it seems a heartless apostasy; its whole tone is
low and bad, while its main points are untenable and unsound. I have been glad
to observe the moral indignation which has been aroused against it. The
merchants of Boston subscribe to it, it is their wont to do such things; but
Governor Briggs expressed himself against it in conversation with me, as warmly
as I do, and said that the people of Massachusetts would not sanction it. David
Henshaw says it is the cunningest and best bid for the Presidency that Webster
has ever made. I should not be astonished if he were Secretary of State within
a short time. No man can tell how this contest is to terminate. It is clear
that there is to be a good deal of speaking before any important votes. I
anticipate much from my friend Chase in the Senate. He is an able lawyer, and
of admirable abilities otherwise.
I thank you very
much for writing that letter on Mr. Webster's speech. It will be read
extensively, and will do great good. You expose his inconsistency and turpitude
in a manner that must sink into the souls of all who read what you have
written. It must sink into the soul of the great apostate. Horace Mann writes
that all the Northern Whigs out of the three great cities are against the speech,
and will speak against it.
Your letter to the “Advertiser”
appeared in that paper last Saturday, the 6th.1 The paper is
sometimes known as “the respectable,” affecting as it does the respectability
of Boston.
1 In reply to the Boston
"Advertiser's" criticisms on Jay's previous paper on Webster.
2 Governor Briggs was without courage, and
took no public position against Webster.
SOURCE: Edward L.
Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles
Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 213-4
It is evident that
there will be a new Cabinet soon. I have for several weeks thought that Webster
would be Secretary of State, but I have some reason now to doubt whether Taylor
would take him. He wishes to get out of the Senate, and I think desires to be
Secretary. He can hardly dare confront the people of Massachusetts at the next
election, as he must do if he is a candidate for re-election. The disaffection
towards him among leading Whigs of the North, particularly of Massachusetts, is
very strong. To me his present position seems deplorable. With all his majestic
powers, he is a traitor to a holy cause. Franklin Dexter says strongly that he
has deliberately committed a crime.
ALBANY, January 27,
1850.
Hon. D. S. DICKINSON—Sir—I
hope to be excused for diverting your attention from public business, in which
you are so usefully employed, only for a few moments, to read a short letter
and to call to mind an acquaintance whom you may have forgotten.
Some time ago I was
introduced to you, and had some intercourse with you, which, I assure you, I
remember with pleasure. Considering our relative positions—you in a conspicuous
public station and I in retirement—I could hardly justify myself for intruding
upon your notice, if I could repress the strong desire I feel to thank you for
the pleasure which your course in Congress has given me, and particularly your
excellent and patriotic remarks in relation to the slavery agitation. I have
nowhere seen so much good sense so well expressed and in so complete a form.
The motive—admiration for your talents, and gratitude for your patriotic use of
them—which makes me desirous of renewing our former acquaintance will, I hope,
justify the liberty I have presumed to take of addressing this communication to
you. I have not received a letter from any public man at Washington since this
session began (except a brief note from General Cass, whom I had troubled with
a request), not one document, not even the excellent message of our most excellent
President, which I thought I was entitled to; for being out of the world, as it
were, in my obscure retirement, I thought myself one of the "rest of mankind,"
not embraced in the world, executively considered.
I formerly could
boast of some acquaintance with a busy, talking personage called the public
press; but he said too many silly things, and it took up so much of my time in
listening to him, that I cut his acquaintance, holding only to Father Ritchie
and the Argus. Father Ritchie I consider as good as new. He tells me all I know
of the men and the doings at Washington.
You have in your
body, or somewhere around you, a certain man called Cass, or General Cass, who
seems to me to be behaving very well, and making most excellent speeches. Were
it not for the apprehension of committing two faults instead of one, I would
take the same liberty with him that I have with you, and write him a letter
approbating his Austrian movement, and telling him how highly I and the people
prize his speeches.
There are also other
persons in Washington, less to my liking than those before mentioned, whom I
should like to see; and, to tell you the truth (which I almost regard as yet a
secret), I have more than half-way formed the rash resolution of making my
appearance in propria persona in
Washington in the course of three or four weeks; if I do, it will give me
pleasure to perceive, when I call to pay my respects to you, by your reception
of me, that I am not an old acquaintance that you do not wish to remember.
HARTFORD, 28th
January, 1850.
MY DEAR SIR—Your
valuable favor of the 17th was duly received, and I am under obligations, not
only for the kind manner in which my communication was received, but for the
confidences and suggestions therein manifested.
The debate which
took place on the 17th I read attentively, and particularly your able and
well-timed remarks, when Mr. Clemens undertook to expel the whole of the
democracy from the political church. It is about twenty years since Mr. Calhoun
commenced his efforts to build up a sectional party, first on the tariff, and
recently on another issue. There was an interval during the administration of
Mr. Van Buren and the early part of John Tyler's, when he undoubtedly had
expectation of rising by reinstating himself with the Democratic party, that
then these sectional animosities were at rest. But the elevation of Mr. Polk
extinguished his hopes, and has made him a sour and discontented man. He has no
aspirations connected with the integrity of the Democratic party, and can have
none. It is to be regretted that the South should embark so fully in his
schemes, or lend themselves to his intrigues.
The indications are
that you will have a somewhat stormy and boisterous session; but I have no
doubt that the ultimate result will be for the permanent welfare of the whole
country. There may be some changes of parties and men, for a time at least, but
with right and principle the Constitution and the Union will triumph. You, with
others who have, to a great extent, the custody of public measures, will so
shape matters that the country will receive no detriment from the intrigues of
the aspiring and restless, or the overheated zeal of the unreflecting and
impulsive.
But I must not intrude on your time. We regret extreemly to hear of the illness of your son. Until the receipt of your letter I was not aware that he had returned. Mrs. Niles continues about the same. I presented your compliments to the Judge, who sensibly felt them, and spoke of your kind feelings, friendly relations, and your attention and devotion to your public duties.
I am in hopes to
visit Washington some time during the session. Until then it will be a
gratification if you can occasionally let me hear from you. With kind regards,
in which Mrs. Welles unites, to yourself, and to your family when you write or
see them, I am, dear sir,
LYNCHBURG, VA.,
February 15, 1850.
TO THE HON. D. S.
DICKINSON—Sir—My attention has been particularly attracted, in common with
others of my fellow-citizens of all parties, to a speech of yours delivered in
the Senate of the United States in reply to Mr. Clemens and others, upon the
unhappy subject which now threatens the overthrow of this glorious Union.
I know you not, nor
have any favor to ask at your hands; I abhor office-seeking and despise
flattery and adulation. I desire simply as a democrat, a southron, and a lover
of the Union, to thank you and to tender the humble homage of my sincere
admiration for the speech in question, which I would rather have delivered,
under the circumstances, than to be the "Thunderer" of Buena Vista; a
speech which, permit me to say, if you do nothing more to entitle you to the
character of a public benefactor, will embalm your memory in the affections of
the truly virtuous and patriotic every where throughout the broad limits of
this Union.
Unpremeditated as it
seems to have been, it nevertheless bears the marks, in my humble judgment, of
profound political sagacity, presenting the only grounds, and suggesting the
only means, whereby this Union can be preserved. The sentiments are just and
eminently patriotic, rebuking the spirit of faction at the North and South. It
bears the stamp of a profound statesman, whose public course is dictated by
honesty, independence, and the public good—a rare example in these days of
degeneracy and corruption. It betrays a lofty spirit which looks down with
unutterable contempt upon the miserable demagogues, who, by agitating this
subject, traitorously sow the seeds of disunion, of war and desolation, merely
to subserve their own purposes of self-aggrandizement; and it shows the spirit
of one, too, who cannot be driven from the performance of his duty either by
the insolence and violence of faction, or by the fear of the loss of power and
place. Permit me to say that, "in my heart of hearts," I love the
honest and independent statesman, and not the less because he is the representative
of the great State of New York. I merely penned these lines for the purpose of
contributing so far as a very humble fellow-countryman unknown to you could, to
cheer you on in your noble and patriotic course. You are right, Sir; and rely
upon it, if this Union is to be preserved at all, it can only be done upon your
principles.
MY DEAR SIR—The
Union of yesterday, which I received this morning, contains a letter addressed
to yourself and me, dated as of the 15th ult. It is signed "John
Hampden," a name over which I have heretofore seen several good articles,
but by whom it is employed I can form no conjecture.
I am quite sure that
as the actual and admirable senator of a great commonwealth, you have already
fronted the crisis as became you, and that you will retain the ground you have
occupied. But I am at a loss to conceive in what manner it is supposed possible
for the late Vice-President usefully to emerge from his privacy, affect to
advise Congress, or officiously intermeddle with business already in deputed
and able hands. Would not such intervention expose me to plausible and
unpleasant imputations, and so affect injuriously the very cause I should
desire to aid?
Certainly I have
nothing to conceal. Content with the measure of domestic happiness which God
permits me to possess, and quite willing to work to the last at the law, I do
not care to hide my opinions on public questions. They were frequently uttered
in the hearing of thousands while position as a national executive agent made
it excusable, if not becoming to do so. The extraordinary circumstances of the
times have slightly modified these opinions, and the irrepressible bias of my
head and heart, toward preserving the Federal Union, as moulded and embodied
(if that word be admissible) by the Constitution, carries me further just now,
than mere logic carried me heretofore. But I must confess to you that however
much I may naturally fondle my own views and sentiments, I shrink from openly
claiming to divert attention from the really wise and virtuous men in the
capital, toward a mere Q in the corner.
I have written this
under a strong impulse of curiosity to know whether the letter in the Union is
but an ordinary flight of anonymous vivacity, or is designed as a serious and
sober hint to us from any quarter. Pray let me have your idea: and excuse this
hasty intrusion on your time.
I am always, very
sincerely and respectfully, your friend and servant,
